Quote of the Month:
Each month we put up a quote relating to education and children in the reception area which we hope will inspire all in St Anne’s for the month ahead. This month’s thought is:
‘Education breeds Confidence, Confidence breeds Hope. Hope breeds Peace’ (Confucius)
Catholic Ethos:
As you know St Anne’s is under the Patronage of Bishop Denis Nulty, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin.
We promote the Catholic faith not only in our teaching at religion time each day and in preparation for sacraments, but in how we promote respect across all aspects of school life.
We have a Sacred Space in our entrance area which reflects the different seasons of the church year and children come together at assembly each morning to pray
Children’s Wellbeing:
The wellbeing of each and every child in St Anne’s is of utmost importance to us. Many initiatives are ongoing which promote children’s wellbeing such as:
– Buddies for junior infants
– Yard Angels- 2nd class children support the children in the junior yard
– Inputs on internet safety
– Circle of Friends programme for children in special class
– Our Students Council works to promote ideas that children throughout the school have
– We celebrate children’s work through various initiatives Eg Artist of the Fortnight and other projects
Parents Talk on RSE
A letter was sent recently to all parents outlining the various elements of the Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) Curriculum, including the Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) aspects. A reminder to parents to view the documents (on school website) which deal with the details of this subject area and to talk with children on this
Thanks to all who turned up for the Parents Talk in February and for contributing to discussions. Teachers are working through all aspects of SPHE throughout the year. An external facilitator visited to talk to 5th and 6th class this term regarding RSE.
Please reassure children that they can speak with any member of staff if they have any concerns or queries in this regard.
Field fence
No doubt you have seen that the permanent fence has been erected around the playing field. We are very grateful to you as parents for your financial support in making this possible and to the GAA who have recently awarded us a grant of €5000 and to one family who gave a donation to us.
We are awaiting advice on when we can begin to use the field for playtime and look forward to many exciting sports days and sports events in the field for years to come!
Sports Teams
1. Soccer team (a first for St Anne’s) Report Mr Mansfield
On Wednesday 1st of March St. Anne participated in the SPAR FAI Primary Schools 5s competition in Leixlip United FC grounds. The competing teams constituted the North Kildare division and St. Annes were represented by both a boys and a girls team.
The competition took a group format with the winners going on to playoff stages and ultimately the outright winners representing the North Kildare division.
The boys team were first up and did the St. Annes’ badge proud with some excellent attacking displays. Ben Tynan, Noah Harmon and Adam Gray all got their names on the scoresheet in the group stages but our efforts fell just short, cumulating in two draws and two narrow losses which unfortunately weren’t enough to see us into the playoff stages. As dispirited as the boys may have been for not qualifying they can hold their heads high for some great team performances and some very skillful displays. Their enthusiastic and vocal support for the girls is also worth a mention.
The girls too did their school proud, with some energetic and physical performances in the group stages, earning them two wins and a draw. As there were 3 groups in the girls competition, the winners played each other in a round robin format. The girls played out a scoreless draw with Straffan N.S. in their first game but managed to clinch the overall victory with a great performance in a hard fought 1-0 game with Maynooth Educate Together. Credit must go to the defensive effort of the team, as they managed to go through the whole competition without conceding a goal, and in particular to our keeper Aoife Kelly who actually scored the winning goal in the final game with a magnificent long range effort from her own goal. Susanna Kelly ran riot for our offense, earning herself the accolade of the competition’s top scorer with 5 goals across all games. The girls will go on to represent the North Kildare division in the mid-Leinster finals on April 26th in a venue to be confirmed.
Well done to all involved and thank you to the parents who provided lifts on the day.
Teams: Boys: James Goulding, Adam Gray, Noah Harmon, T.J. Knightly, Joshua O’Reilly, Senan O’Toole, Ben Tynan. Girls: Ava Duggan, Molly Griffin, Aoife Kelly, Susanna Kelly, Hannah Lawlor, Jill McKenna, Leah Tyndall, Iona Finnerty
2. Badminton: Report Mrs Knightly
On Wednesday the 1st of March 2017, St. Annes competed in the All Ireland Primary Schools Badminton Competition in Baldoyle Badminton Centre. The Shuttletime Irish Primary Schools final saw 39 teams compete, from schools all over Ireland, including Cork, Waterford, Dublin, Kildare and Galway. St. Annes was very well represented by 27 players on six teams, which was the highest number in the whole competition!
The boys final was won by Knocklyon, Dublin beating Kilcredan, Co. Cork. The girls final was won by Banteer, Co. Cork beating Scoil Fhursa, Galway. For a full list of results, visit http://www.badmintonireland.com/news/110540/Drama-in-Shuttle-Time-Primary-Final
St. Anne’s team was unlucky not to qualify for the semi-finals, but all our players were magnificent in their efforts and their sportsmanship.
On behalf of the children and Mrs. Knightly, our appreciation and gratitude is sent out to our fabulous team managers, Yvonne Brophy, Miriam Phillips, Margo O’Rourke and Cecilia McKenna.
Congratulations and well done! A great day was had by all.
Best wishes to all our other teams who will be competing shortly including the cross country teams, football teams and basketball teams
World Book Day and Reading Initiatives
Well done to everyone for designing such creative and interesting costumes for the World Book Day Book Character event- it was a real treat to hear all the descriptions of costumes and knowledge about the characters
Thanks to parents in Senior Infants for supporting our Paired Reading programme and to the children in 5th and 6th classes for their work on the buddy reading programmes over the past weeks.
Thanks to a generous donation to the school we hope to set up a library in St Anne’ over the coming months- we will keep you informed of the progress on this
First Confession:
Congratulations to all the children in 2nd class who made their first confession on Monday night last. We look forward to celebrating their First Communion on May 27th. Thanks to Fr Matt and Fr O Byrne for all the work they do with us throughout the year.
Art Project
The children in 2nd class recently worked with artist David Gorman as part of the Craft-Ed project. The children designed and created a puppet theatre- we look forward to seeing some performances at the theatre soon!
Seachtain na Gaeilge
Comhghairdeas gach duine. Well done to all who dressed up for St Patrick’s Day and for taking part in the quiz, céilí and games. Rinne gach duine iarracht mhaith an Ghaeilge a labhairt ar feadh na seachtaine. See the gallery for photos of all the events. Thanks to Natalie who taught the dances for the céilí and who led the dancing on the day.